Likelihood to Recommend

Adobe Analytics

We generate sales reports and use this platform for source traffic reporting search terms optimizations, campaign AB testing. We analyze overall site performance for various IT implementation on user enhancements.

Urban Airship

It's well-suited when you want your content to get out quickly. It's best for breaking or big news. We do weigh what types of stories we want to push. We don't want to overuse it, but we want to take advantage. We don't find it appropriate using it between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. We sent out a push one time around midnight, and we got a comment back that it woke somebody up and scared them.

It's very fast. As soon as we hit send, it arrives on our phone and tablet apps immediately.

The interface is clear. We generally copy and paste the headline right into the box. The font and font size, along with the background, make it easy to read so that we avoid any typos. That's important because we're working quickly.

The interface can be a little confusing. In the upper right corner of your dashboard, you'll see "New Push Message" and "New Message" ... Seems odd to have two choices. Then, after you push "New Message" you can copy and paste your text, but then there are about three more buttons before you get to the point of sending it. That just might be how it's integrated with our app so other markets might be different. But, if you have the instructions, it's fairly quick.

Again, this could be just the way it's integrated with our app, but when a user clicks on the alert on their phones, it goes to the web site and not to the specific story. So, we have to make sure the story is in a prominent place on our site (Latest News, mainstage).

Usability

Adobe Analytics6.8

Based on 9 answers

Not as intuitive as with Google Analytics. There are a lots of gotchas. Tool is best suited for analysts, not casual users. If you know what you're doing, it can be extremely powerful. The usability is getting better, for example, with their drag and drop calculated metrics builder and segment builder, but there is a steep learning curve overall to really know what you're getting with your reports.

Reliability and Availability

Adobe Analytics9.0

Based on 5 answers

Adobe SiteCatalyst has a good up-time track record, but there are cases in which the interface reports a "Network Acceleration" issue, which can be frustrating. There are also times when data can be "latent" for customers, but most of these cases are due to spikes in traffic or temporary server issues.

Performance

Adobe Analytics8.5

Based on 4 answers

For the most part, Adobe SiteCatalyst reports work ok, but there are cases in which reports take a long time to return. These cases are usually when too much data has been stored in Conversion Variables (eVars).

In-Person Training

Adobe Analytics3.6

Based on 3 answers

Myself and others have found the in-person training ok, but not outstanding. Trainers are good at explaining how to use the product features, but sometimes lack "real-world" experience on how to use the product as they are people who have often not previously been web analysts. There is also a shortcoming in company-provided training on advanced uses of the product. The implementation training is very good.

Online Training

Adobe Analytics8.0

Based on 4 answers

The online training for Adobe SiteCatalyst consists of short product videos. These are ok, but only go so far. For a while Adobe charged a fee for this, but recently made these available for free. There are many great blog posts that help users learn how to apply the product as well.

Implementation

Adobe Analytics8.0

Based on 7 answers

The success of implementations depend primarily on the solution design, and also on the ability to work with developers to get the solution implemented correctly. This is not an aspect of the product per se.

Alternatives Considered

There was a time when we went off Urban Airship and went to Spreed. We were using Spreed's app, so there was much better integration on push notifications. The push notification took readers directly into the story. When we moved from Spreed to our own native app, we went back to Urban Airship.

Return on Investment

I would say the biggest plus Adobe Analytics has had on overall business objectives is being the most robust tool out there that we have used, which allows us to gather deeper insights for our clients, driving home more ROI.

I would also say the biggest downside to using Adobe Analytics is how frequently the tool will have issues and/or be under maintenance. Additionally, as stated previously, Adobe's support is pretty horrendous in times such as these.